Iskcon condemns Maneka comments on Anantapur Goshala

ANANTAPUR: BJP MP Maneka Gandhi’s critical comments against the ISKCON’s goshala here has raised many an eyebrow. While she alleged poor maintenance of cows at the Goshala and selling of diseased cows from there to slaughterhouses, ISKCON outrightly denies these.

The former minister said the authorities were keeping only those providing milk and selling the other animals to slaughterhouses instead of protecting them too. She said she had visited the goshala and noticed the ‘worse’ condition.

Stray cattle from streets and other public places are being captured by Anantapur Municipal Corporation on a regular basis. The Iskcon goshala voluntarily accepts them and maintains them.

Maneka’s tweet was viral on all social media platforms. ISKCON responded thus: “We have no idea when this leader visited our goshala. This is baseless. She should not have made such comments,” local Iskcon representative Damodar Das said.

Iskcon has been running the goshala in Tank Bund area closer to the city, while its temple is located on NH-44. The goshala has around 420 cows. Some 240 cows are being protected, of which a majority of them are not producing milk. A total of 75 bull kids are protected in the goshala. Of these, many cows have health problems. The legs of seven of them were damaged but they too are kept in the goshala, Iskcon said.

“We have been protecting the cows in all stages after the Anantapur Municipal Corporation captured them from the streets and handed them over to the goshala. We are also inviting the cow’s owners to come and collect milk from the animals, but they leave these to us to protect them by providing them with healthy feed,” Das told Deccan Chronicle.

He said that, except for the 18 healthy cows, the 240 cows were allowed to stay with their calves to enable these animals to be fed without any restrictions. The Iskcon goshala is famous and many people visit it to offer grass and necessary funding for its maintenance during special occasions in their family.